Hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout your body. While you might assume this is a uniquely human protein, it’s actually found in plants, too, including sugar beets.

Researchers from Lund University in Sweden, who note that hemoglobin from blood donations falls far short of demands, hope that this plant hemoglobin, known as leghemoglobin, may one day become a blood substitute capable of saving lives.

2.5 Acres of Beets Could Save Thousands of Lives?

Sugar beets (unfortunately often genetically modified) are a common raw material used for the production of sugar, but extracting sugar from the beets is far easier than extracting hemoglobin.

According to researchers, the challenge is extracting enough from each mature beet, although they estimate that one hectare of beets (about 2.5 acres) could produce 1-2 tons of hemoglobin, which they say “could save thousands of lives.”1

While complete blood is ultimately needed for blood transfusions, hemoglobin can be given in the first five hours following an accident to help oxygen circulate throughout the body.2

The beet hemoglobin is, surprisingly, nearly identical to human hemoglobin, except for a small “surface detail” that Nélida Leiva, a doctoral student of applied biochemistry at Lund University, said extends the lifespan of the beet hemoglobin.

There are multiple types of hemoglobin in your body, including that in your blood as well as in your brain and testicles in men. The beet hemoglobin shares the most similarities with the brain hemoglobin. If you’re wondering why hemoglobin, which transports oxygen, is needed in plants, Leiva explained:3

    “We have found that the hemoglobin in the plant binds nitric oxide. It is probably needed to keep certain processes in check, for example so that the nitric oxide doesn’t become toxic, and to ward off bacteria.”

More research is planned to determine if the sugar beet hemoglobin could one day be used as a blood substitute, but at least one expert is skeptical. Raúl Arredondo-Peter, who has studied the evolution of plant hemoglobins, believes the idea “is conceivable but far off because they do not carry and release oxygen at the same rates as human hemoglobins.”4